PANAJI
Small businesses, particularly those operating from ground-level shops in apartment buildings and wholly dependent on daily footfalls and turnovers, are most affected by the disruptions due to the ongoing 'smart city' work in Panaji.
In several locations where the roads have been fully shut for traffic, movement of people has dwindled to zero, likewise business for such outlets operating there.
One such area is the MG Road alongside the Don Bosco School campus. Here, diverse businesses ranging from computer shops, the popular Sar-Taj restaurant, a saloon and besides the BPCL petrol pump managed by the BN Thakur group are located and have been bleeding for the length of a good three weeks ever since this road was shut just before Christmas.
A few metres away, beyond the St Inez circle at the Caculo island stretching up to the Taj Vivanta junction too has been shut. Here too, multiple businesses operate from ground-floor shops of edifices on either side of this road.
"Walk-ins have drastically dropped to just a trickle. We are making losses daily," said the manager of a South Indian tea and snack restaurant on this street.
Dust pollution is another cause of pain for these outlets, with several telling 'The Goan' that they have to clean up the furniture in their ground-floor establishments every other hour.
The petrol pump near Don Bosco has been facing a peculiar dilemma. This stretch of the MG Road up to the St Inez Circle traffic island where it meets 18th June Road is a single-way street and the only access to the fuel pump. While two-wheeler riders somehow manage to make their way to the fuel station, it is inaccessible for four-wheelers except via the wrong way by cutting through the Campal Heritage Precinct.
The adverse impact on business has been drastic both for the petrol station as well as the 'In & Out' store managed there by the Magsons retail chain.
Elsewhere in the city close to the Panaji police station, a popular chai and snack corner and another that serves meals at the 'Karmali Glass Tower' face the same dilemma -- daily footfalls dropping by nearly 60-70 per cent.
Worse, the earthmoving machinery operators working for the smart city contractors there have damaged water pipelines forcing the businesses to make their own private arrangements for water.
"We had informed the supervisor of the location of the PWD pipe supplying water to our outlet and to take care not to damage it while running the bulldozers. Despite cautioning them, the pipes were damaged," an employee of the restaurant near the Panaji police station, said.
